A Pirate's Life For Me
by Irrelevancy
Summary: Pirates AU: In order to ensure safe passage, Captain Kendall Knight and his crewmates Logan and Carlos decide to kidnap a member of the royal family as insurance. Enter James Diamond, Prince of Rocque. Eventual OT4.
1. Gather Weary Travelers

**A/N: This is an OT4 shipping fic, which means Kendall/James/Carlos/Logan.**

**AU in which Kendall, Carlos, and Logan are pirates and James is a prince. That they kidnap. Why not.**

* * *

It was a sunny day aboard the infamous pirate ship _Rush_, and as the likewise infamous pirate Captain Kendall stood at the bow of the ship, the sea breeze rustling his hair, he could feel a smile slip its way across his face.

"Slip its way across your face?" Logan, the quartermaster, scoffed. "What, are you comparing smiling to _mopping the deck_?"

"Well, what are _your_ suggestions then?" Kendall asked, affronted. Logan rolled his eyes.

"_He could feel the beginnings of a smile tug at the corner of his mouth_," the genius responded. Kendall stuck out his tongue childishly and grabbed the telescope hooked on his belt, propping his leg up on the steering wheel to get a better look at the approaching black spot on the horizon.

"That's the kingdom of Rocque," Carlos announced, yelling from where he was balanced on the railing framing the deck. He hopped down with a disappointed expression. "No relation to the kingdom of Androll. I already checked."

"Rocque is all about the hierarchy, K-Dog, so you should take your unsightly peg leg off before we get there," Logan suggested, eyeing said peg leg and nudging at it with his boot. Kendall raised an eyebrow pointedly at his face.

"I'll take my peg leg off when you take that stupid eyepatch off," he replied breezily.

"The eyepatch is _cool_," Logan shot back, fingering the black string across his face fondly. "Unlike your stupid… _stump_."

"We should take a hostage," said Carlos, out of the blue, before Kendall could tell Logan an interesting fact about his mom (though Kendall knew Mrs. Mitchell was an extremely nice woman… as nice as moms got, anyways). The sudden declaration made even Logan's giant whirring brain stall with a dramatic clog-y clang.

"Say what?" Kendall replied for the both of them, cool as always.

"We should take a hostage," Carlos repeated, sounding so matter-of-fact Kendall couldn't even hope that he was joking. Carlos waved a hand in the general direction of the starboard, where a giant hole in the woodwork made by an imperial ship was being patched up by crew hands. "We've made a really big name for ourselves back in Minnesota, so."

"…So if we took a royal hostage from Rocque," Kendall picked up slowly, "we have insurance against the royal navy."

"Then we won't have to put on these ridiculous disguises to sneak ashore!" Logan finished, cheering with joy as he tore off his eyepatch. "Woohoo!"

"Hang on," Kendall said, bringing the one-man festivities to a screeching halt. "Isn't it kind of… against moral conduct to keep someone against his will?"

"But we're _pirates_!" Carlos swung his arms in emphasis. "We're supposed to be against moral conduct in the first place!"

"But we've never raped or pillaged any of the kingdoms we came across," Kendall said, a pained look on his face, "and I doubt we want to."

"We just kind of… accidentally destroyed everything in our way," Logan muttered unconvincingly to himself. He looked up. "But Kendall's right. It's not right to kidnap a person, even if we'll treat him with respect and give him awesome living conditions and share our earnings with him and bring him to the End of the World with us."

"…Go on," Kendall and Carlos said together, arms folded across their chests. Logan smirked.

"See, there's this little psychological condition people call Stockholm Syndrome…"

-Five minutes later-

"Alright, it's decided!" Kendall declared. "We're taking a royal hostage!"

Carlos and Logan whooped with joy, and the three had an impromptu dance party right there on the deck, waving at the band they kept aboard the ship to play music for exactly this purpose.

-Another five minutes later-

"So who should we kidnap?" Carlos asked, panting after coming to a stop. Kendall shrugged.

"Quartermaster, we need a list of candidates," he said. Logan straightened from his crouch, his research face on.

"A list of all nobility in kingdom Rocque coming right up."

"Alright, let's see." Kendall began pacing the deck for dramatic purposes. Carlos watched excitedly, hanging off the side of the bow. "We'll want someone our own age, preferably male, preferably fun-loving, preferably not so quick to yell at us when we do something wrong."

"Narrowing down the list," Logan notified the captain as he scrawled with a feather on a piece of yellowed parchment. He had been overjoyed when Carlos got him the set for his birthday ("I know a guy," Carlos had shrugged casually).

"Ooh, and he should be pretty," Carlos added. "There's no one pretty to look at onboard."

"Hey!" Logan exclaimed, indignant. Carlos winced apologetically, mouthing sorry, but definitely not taking back his claim. Looking towards Kendall for support, all Logan got was a meaningful nod. With a huff, Logan looked back down at his list. "Fine. Be that way."

"So what have we got?" Kendall asked, changing the subject.

"Well," Logan muttered, still scribbling on the page. "After inputting the list of candidates through a logarithm customized to our needs, we have… exactly _one_ candidate." He turned the paper over and held it up, showing the sketch of a rather handsome face. "Meet Prince James Diamond, son of Duchess Brooke Diamond of the royal court of Gustavo Rocque."

"_Ooh_," Carlos and Kendall chimed in together. Logan cleared his throat, holding the paper up to admire the picture himself.

"At only sixteen years of age, James is a well known troublemaker in the court," he introduced. "The official cause of the fall of the Camerelli Castle was listed as an accident, but local word has it that he was actually the one responsible, after getting into a fight with Baron Chet Camerelli and launching a cannon at the castle."

"That means he won't yell at us if we destroy too many things," Kendall said happily. "He's a dude, and he's our age. Three out of three. He's perfect."

"And he's pretty, too." Carlos clapped with joy, almost falling off the railing in the process. "He's perfect eye candy!"

"Okay, maybe a little," Logan consented, his gaze never once leaving the portrait. "So James Diamond it is?"

Kendall and Carlos exchanged grins.

"James Diamond it is."

/

James Diamond sat at his dressing table, barely suppressing a yawn. Despite his effort, his mother still whacked him lightly over the head with an– was that an _ascot_?

"But mom, the ball is going to be so boring!" James whined as his mom squeezed a handful of mousse into his hair, slicking it back.

"Don't say that," Duchess Diamond scolded. "You're showing your face as an apology for blowing up the Camerelli castle."

"But I don't like Mimi," James continued to protest. "Remember that one time I was playing ice hockey with Jenny Tinkler?"

"The time we needed to call that physician in from all the way over in Minnesota because of that _ridiculous_ paper cut she gave you?" Duchess Diamond said sarcastically as she uncapped a stick of kohl. "How can I forget?"

"Yeah well, Jenny only gave me the paper cut because she was so mad after Chet and Mimi called us _cavemen on skates,_" James defended, unconsciously smoothing his finger over the scar on his arm where the paper cut had been. That had been a scary day for the entirety of the kingdom of Rocque as all the citizens feared for their princes's life. "Those Camerellis deserved everything their castle got."

"Still, it's for your public image." His mother wasn't going to give in– James could tell as Brooke smoothed her hands over his shoulders over the black dress shirt he was wearing. "You are the prince, after all, and we need to keep your public image _good_."

There really wasn't much James could say in response to that since despite his protests, James couldn't help but admire himself in the mirror because he did look _good_. Really good. Worthy of a prince good. And he had his mother to thank for that.

James stood up with a muted sigh, kissing the duchess on her cheek with a grateful smile.

"Promise you won't give Mimi a hard time?" Brooke said as she handed her son the black quarter-mask that went with the masquerade theme of the night. James fought hard to keep the smile on his face.

"I'll be kidnapped by pirates before I would even dream of it," he promised.

* * *

**A/N: I realize the dark potentials this fic can have, but I'm not gonna go there (unless people want me to). Review and tell me what you think, if I should continue?**


	2. I Have A Tale to Tell

**A/N: This is an OT4 shipping fic, which means Kendall/James/Carlos/Logan.**

**AU in which Kendall, Carlos, and Logan are pirates and James is a prince. That they kidnap. Why not.**

* * *

"Operation Infiltrate High Security Masquerade Ball Under Flimsy Disguises is a go," Carlos whispered loudly. Logan flicked mournfully at the broken Noh-mask covering half his face, and Kendall tugged awkwardly at the stiff moss green waistcoat he was currently wearing. A bunch of _Rush's_ crewmen were hovering behind them, all in various states of discomfort. Only Carlos looked perfectly comfortable in his purple-and-gold rather sparkly outfit and a mask to match.

As a group, they strolled casually up to the armed guard at the entrance of the ballroom, and Kendall cleared his throat.

"We are from the uh, royal courts of… Vienna. We were passing through and heard you were hosting a ball, so we thought we might attend," he said as regally as he could. The guard barely gave them a second look.

"Invitation only," he said emotionlessly.

"Operation is a bust! Abort! Abort!" Logan hissed in Kendall's ear, and Kendall whacked the back of his head. He forced a grin and turned back to the guard.

"C'mon, what's an invitation between neighboring kingdoms, huh?" he wheedled. "It's just for a little bit, we won't cause any trouble…"

"I said, _Invitation only_." The guard glared, his grip on the musket over his shoulders tightening. Kendall could feel the wave of anger bristling through his crew, and knew he needed to get the situation under control before someone ends up dead. He looked around quickly for inspiration, panic slowing down his thought process.

"I uh, I mean– It's kind of–"

"Hey, Charles, I'm glad you could make it!"

Every single head in the hallway immediately pivoted towards the source of the voice, which seemed to be a dapperly-dressed (to say the least) young man making his way towards Kendall with a huge grin beneath his classy wrought-iron mask. Kendall hadn't even managed to voice his surprise in an articulate "Huh?" before the young man was pulling him into a bear hug.

"Play along if you want to get in," he hissed into Kendall's ear, and Kendall jerked to attention. He laughed, his voice a little bit too high for his liking, and patted the guy on the back.

"Yeah, we made it, like you told us to," Kendall said loudly for the guard to hear. The stranger nodded and turned to the guard with an easy smile.

"These are my friends, Pat," he said joyously. "I was the one who invited them tonight."

"Oh." Pat-the-Guard looked uncomfortable. "But I'm not sure Duchess Camerelli would–"

"Nonsense! I've known Mimi since I was small, and she loves a huge, loud, crazy party!" By the way the stranger announced that, Kendall could tell that the Duchess Mimi Camerelli really wouldn't, and Pat knew that too. But apparently, the stranger with the riches had enough influence to get Pat to reluctantly step aside, granting the stranger and _Rush_'s crew entrance to the ball room. The stranger beamed and patted Pat on the back (Logan stifled incongruous laughter). "Thank you very much, Pat! I'll be sure to tell the Duchess great things about you."

"Have a nice evening, Prince Diamond," Pat murmured uncomfortably. Prince Diamond grinned, and ushered the stunned trio of the _Rush_ and their crew into the room.

"You're welcome," he murmured smugly into Logan's ear. "Now I hope you guys are hell of party crashers, because this is going to be the lamest gathering _ever_."

"I don't– uh, I mean, you're the–" Seeing how Logan currently bore much resemblance to a deer in the headlights of an oncoming semi driven by a drunk frat boy, Kendall nudged him roughly in the side, upon which Logan laughed his I'm-so-nervous-I'm-going-to-puke-up-the-rest-of-my-ego laugh and finished with an eloquent "Blip blap bloop" and finger guns. Kendall and Carlos face-palmed, but to their pleasant surprise, Prince Diamond threw his head back, laughing heartily, and patted Logan on the back.

"Drinks?" he asked brightly. "I don't know where the Camerellis get them from, but the sodies they have are to die for."

With that, Prince Diamond walked off, presumably in the direction of the refreshments table, and Kendall and Logan stared after him in shock. Carlos gleefully clapped his hands.

"If we weren't already planning on kidnapping him," he said, "I'd _marry_ him. He's perfect."

"Yes," Logan agreed hoarsely. "Yes he is."

Kendall turned to his friends and grinned his 1000-kilowatts captain grin.

"In that case," he cheered, "let us inapt phase two of Plan Kidnap Prince Diamond."

/

"Hi!" Kendall greeted brightly as he stepped up to the refreshment table. "You're Prince James Diamond, right?"

"That I am." James took an elegant sip of his bright purple sodie. Their conversation was slightly muted by the string quartet playing some fancy song-in-major by the corner, but James had a voice that projected over the music with ease. "And I'm guessing your name's not Charles?"

"It's Kendall," he replied, shaking James's proffered hand. "Kendall Knight."

"Any titles to your name, Kendall Knight?" James asked, grinning. "I'd feel rather accomplished if I managed to let in a crew of wayward vagabonds into a titles-only party."

"I do have a title, unfortunately." Kendall returned his smile. He had yet to let go of James's hand.

"Oh? And what might that be?"

Kendall suddenly tugged, the prince's hand firm in his grip, pulling James in until Kendall's mouth was level to his ear.

"It's Captain," he breathed, pressing James towards him with a hand at the small of his back. "Captain Kendall Knight."

From behind him, Carlos pulled a black sack over James's head.

From beneath him, Logan yanked James's legs out from underneath him and pulled him onto the platform under the wheeled refreshments cart.

Casual as can be, Kendall quick-changed into a waiter's outfit, and wheeled the cart out of the room as fast as he could.

Phase two: Complete.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for all of the awesome response! Here's a chapter just for you guys. :P**

**So, I thought I had chapter 3 done as well, but then, I realized it had no plot. And then I realized that /I/ had no plot, and should come up with one. So. The next chapter almost definitely will come out later, so keep tuned in!**

**Please review and tell me what you think, any ideas you have, what you wanna see, etc. :)**


	3. It Might Just Save Your Lives

**A/N: This is an OT4 shipping fic, which means Kendall/James/Carlos/Logan.**

**Hey look, a longer chapter. Kind of.**

* * *

"_Don't kill me I have insurance_," was the first thing James said when they freed him from the bag. Logan knelt down beside him and took his wrist between his fingers.

"Calm down," he said in his doctor voice, a far cry from his I'm-panicking-Kendall-save-me voice. "I'm going to take your pulse, make sure you aren't about to go into cardiac arrest."

"I'll make sure _you guys_ get arrested," James shrieked, yanking his hand back and crawling backwards until his back hit the headboard of Carlos's bed, where they had dumped him. "Don't move! I know kung fu and karate!"

"Really?" Carlos was practically glittering as he leaned over the mattress. James cowered further down. "We should totally spar sometimes, then! Dude, it'd be so awesome–"

"_What are you talking about?_" James sounded seriously close to hyperventilating, voice all high and wheezing. "Why would I spar with you? I don't know you, I don't know any of you and I helped you–"

"James,_ calm down_."

Kendall gripped James's ankle in a solid grip– the only part of him Kendall could reach without risking bodily injuries– accentuating his order. James's mouth snapped shut, and he stared wide-eyed at Kendall for a moment, until Kendall finally felt the tension leave James's foot. James slowly straightened until he was sitting up against the headboard, poise wary, but less prone to lashing out at anyone that comes near.

"Who are you?" he asked, voice gruff to disguise the light tremble.

"Kendall Knight," Kendall said once more. "Captain of the pirate ship _Rush_."

"Logan Mitchell," Logan said sheepishly. "Quartermaster."

"Carlos Garcia," Carlos said cheerfully. "Nobody knows what my job is, exactly, but I do a bit of everything."

"But mostly nothing," Logan muttered, and he and Carlos briefly traded slaps. James watched on in wide-eyed bewilderment.

"You kidnapped me," he said once he found the voice to. "Why?"

"We need a royal hostage to insure us safe passage," Kendall explained. "But we didn't want one of those stuffy pricks you have in court, so after grueling hours of search, we found you."

James was preening slightly, and Kendall felt a little bad about exaggerating, but at least he was getting the prince to relax.

"We've already set sail, so you can't escape," Logan warned.

"So what am I supposed to do?" James asked, more confused than worried, as if he was truly curious about the role he was supposed to play. "Just lounge around in a prison cell somewhere until I rot?"

"Of course not," Carlos said, looking aghast. "You're our crew mate, now. You're allowed to do anything you want on the _Rush_."

"But I thought I was your prisoner."

"We take prisoners in style," Kendall said with a shrug.

There was a long silence, one Logan mentally dubbed the Moment of Truth, as the three pirates and the prince stared each other down. They had done the best they could, _Rush_'s members; they explained their position, their actions, the consequences. All that's left is for James to make a decision.

Suddenly, James hopped to his feet, surprisingly agile for someone who had been trapped in a giant sack for the last half hour. Carlos and Kendall were immediately on the defensive, hands a hair's breath away from the weapons they kept on their persons as insurance more than anything else. James quickly backed up, putting his hands up in surrender, trying to show he meant no harm.

"How far away are we from port?" he asked hurriedly. Logan stepped out from behind Kendall cautiously.

"Look, we're not going to let you escape–"

"That's not why I'm asking," James said impatiently. "This is a pirate ship, right? We're not far from the Camerelli Castle yet, right?"

"Yes and yes?" Carlos answered uncertainly. A devious smile lit up James's face.

"You guys have cannons, right?"

Kendall, Logan, and Carlos all looked at each other, and grinned.

"We are _so_ keeping him."

/

"I hate them," James sighed in satisfaction as the building crumbled to dust. "I hate them so much."

"And you're sure no one was in there?" Carlos asked worriedly. James waved a flippant hand.

"Everybody will be at the poor excuse of a party. Plus," he added, "they have five other estates, the rich bastards."

"Aren't you a rich-as-hell prince, though?" Logan said, bemused.

"Only in title," James replied, making a wry face. "After my parents split, there was a huge inheritance blow out or something, so really nothing's left."

"So that party…?"

"Formalities. Plus," he added, "my mom knows the king, so even though he left the kingdom for some crazy campaign for bringing dogs to justice or whatever, we got sent invites."

There was a long pause, as Kendall and Logan traded looks. James was lounging against the railing, already looking like he belonged on the ship, and Carlos was too busy jumping around him in excitement to notice. Logan was staring wide-eyed at Kendall; it was his help-me look again. With a nervous grunt, Kendall stepped up, hovering warily behind James with Logan at his side.

"Bringing dogs to justice?" he repeated stiffly, and James turned around in confusion. "You're from the kingdom of _Rocque_, correct?"

"Yes…?" James's relaxed posture was unconsciously slipping back into defensive as Kendall loomed over him; he cringed when Logan threw up his arms.

"We're doomed," Logan announced with a delirious bark of laughter. "We kidnapped the frickin' _prince of Rocque_."

"Okay calm down." Kendall was trying to sound as persuasive as possible, but it was nowhere up to par with the steadiness and confidence he had exuded in Carlos's bedroom with James. He was swaying back a forth a bit himself, like he wanted to be pacing the deck. But Logan was already doing that, circling a little patch anxiously, muttering to himself. James had backed up against the railing, gripping it hard behind him, staring hard at Kendall in both confusion and a little bit of fear, and Kendall took a deep breath to smother his agitation, telling himself that scaring James wouldn't bode well for anyone. "James." The prince visibly gulped, glancing around like he was looking for escape routes. Kendall forcibly softened his tone. "What's the name of your king?"

At that, James looked even more bewildered, mouth opening and shutting a couple of times without a sound. Kendall was about to snap; they were wasting precious time, and if they didn't get to the bottom of James's identity at that instant, everything was going to shit, didn't James _get_ that, so he should goddamn _talk_ already–

Carlos took a careful step between Kendall and James, his hand at James's elbow. Without looking at Kendall, he asked gently, "Do you know?"

"I– yeah." As he looked uneasily between Carlos and Kendall, James leaned slightly into Carlos's grip. "It's Gustavo."

Kendall exhaled loudly, squeezing his eyes shut as he turned away. Logan made a high, desisting noise and dropped to sit on the deck with his face in his hands. Carlos didn't look away from James.

"Gustavo is the Marine captain that's been chasing after the Rush since we set out," he explained. "If he knows we have the prince of his kingdom as a captive, he'll come after us with all he's got."

"No he won't," James said hurriedly. "He barely knows me. We met each other maybe once when I was a kid–"

"Doesn't matter," Logan interrupted, sounding like he's given up on all that was worth anything in the world. Carlos spun around with a frown, arms flexed behind him, in front of James. "He hates us. All Gustavo needs is a reason."

"I hate to say it, but he's been going pretty easy on us so far." Kendall was looking mournfully down at Logan, avoiding Carlos's imploring gaze. "If he and that officer of his, Kelly, if they come after us with all they have, we're doomed."

Carlos tried to argue, "How would Gustavo even find out–"

"Carlos." It was Logan's no-nonsense tone, the one he only employed when someone was being deliberately stubborn. "Give it up."

"Give what up?" Carlos wasn't about to back down, and if Logan was doing his hard gaze and thin lips thing, Carlos could get angry too. "There's nothing to give–"

"He means give _me_ up," James said abruptly. He stood straight, arms stiff at his side, and even though James looked more reserved than accusatory, Logan still turned away with a guilty expression. Kendall sighed deeply, then met James's gaze. "I can't stay."

"No."

Kendall always want to be there for the guys, but sometimes, he hated being the leader, the alpha in charge of making all the hard decisions, like telling James he couldn't be with them, telling the _guys_ that they couldn't have James. It was for the best, everybody knew, but it didn't mean anybody had to be happy about it.

"Alright."

With that, James turned and made for the lifeboat at the side of the deck. It would have been easier to deal with, had James been angry and unreasonable, so that Kendall could tell him that he was being a presumptive dickass and needed to get off their ship that instant. It would have been easier to deal with, had James not been so _cool_, so goddamn understanding about the way Kendall, Carlos, and Logan thought, so in sync with the members of Rush before he'd even spent a night with them. But he was. James had turned out to be all they wanted in a captive-slash-crewmate, and now, as Kendall watched the slight slump of James's back as he walked away, he couldn't help but feel like they were making the biggest mistake of their lives.

/

"We're making the biggest mistake of our lives," Carlos insisted, leaning far into Kendall's personal space. "We can't let him get away, we can't."

"We have to," Logan replied dully. "It's to keep the Rush safe."

"But that doesn't make any sense." It really didn't, because they all knew nothing was _safe_ once they got out into the high seas. Carlos remembered warning after warning of navigating the gigantic ocean, how to deal with the extreme weather conditions, not to mention the consequences of piracy, but the three of them had decided to head out together on an adventure, anyways. Had they forgotten why?

"It's not you, it's us," Kendall said sadly as a crew member lowered the lifeboat James was in down to the ocean.

"You spend five minutes in a bedroom with a guy, and it's like he's already one of us," Logan sighed.

They had _clearly_ forgotten why. It was time Carlos reminded them.

"Guys." He stood in front of Kendall and Logan, arms raised with his palms facing forward like he had watched Kendall do so many times as an overture to his speeches. The dude from the band began to play his guitar, a slow, inspirational riff right on cue. "Remember why we set out for the sea in the first place?"

"Because everybody in Minnesota hated us after we destroyed the town square on accident," Logan answered. Carlos inclined his head in acknowledgment, grinning a bit as he remembered the hint of snow in the air, dampening the trade wares piled up behind stalls, local merchants shouting for business. Those were the good times, when, satisfied after a Fishstick Friday dinner, Kendall, Carlos, and Logan had managed to accidentally set fire to a fruit merchant's booth, which had actually been a front for a firearms smuggling business. Of course, that just happened to be the day all of the gunpowder imports were coming in by mango crates. Nobody cared that the boys had caught an international criminal and helped their town gain notoriety, just that their town square was now a smoldering pile of charred limestone with the scant pieces of marble lying hundreds of yards away.

"The other reason?"

"For freedom," Kendall answered quietly, contemplatively. Carlos nodded proudly, stepping back a little to let Kendall take the spotlight, because that was what Kendall was good at, and Carlos had really only planned out this far, anyways. The trio automatically shifted to accommodate Kendall as their center; he barely noticed. "Logan," he said, "Carlos is right. We need to remember why we set sail in the first place."

"So we weren't caught up in the political mess a society can bring," Logan explained to himself, in big words, so he could understand.

"And so that we're free to do whatever we want." Kendall had the look in his eyes that could calm tornadoes and douse fires with sheer willpower alone. "None of us wanted to be forced into being who we are not, and here we are, casting ourselves as the righteous pirates when in truth, we're nowhere close. That's not fair to James." He paused, brow furrowing. "Gentlemen, I believe we've made a mistake in letting James leave."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that."

Dramatic timpani roll, slow motion. Had this story been worthy of a cinematic experience, Kendall knew there would be a close shot of the three pirates' surprised faces, then follow their heads turning over their shoulders to gradually focus on James, standing behind them with a pleased grin. Also looking not unlike a golden retriever that had been in the rain for far too long, running around all over the house, heedlessly barking with energy and spraying water and tracking mud everywhere (but maybe not that last part, so much). With a shout of joy, Carlos tackled James, hugging him tightly around the middle, and James hugged him back just as enthusiastically. If asked about it in the future, Kendall would never admit to the goofy grin spreading across his face, but he certainly won't deny it, either.

"You're wet!" Carlos exclaimed, arms still wrapped around the prince. "How did you get onboard?"

"I– There was a whirlpool," James said, avoiding everybody's gaze. Logan raised an eyebrow.

"The boat's fine," he said, gesturing to the lifeboat they had sent James off on, floating on the waves without a care in the world.

"It was a very small whirlpool," James replied indignantly. Logan shrugged with an It-Happens face, and James continued, "So I gather I can stay, then?"

Kendall took a deep breath.

"It'll be dangerous. Are you sure you want to stay with us?"

James stared incredulously at Kendall.

"I jumped into the _ocean_ for you guys," he proclaimed, jabbing an accusing finger in the direction of the waters. "Do you know what saltwater does to my _hair_?"

A moment of pause, before Kendall was grinning again, this time with a giddy bark of laughter (irony was a dish best served to a table in one's private thoughts) as he joined James and Carlos in a group hug. With an elated jump of joy nobody was supposed to see, Logan ran forward and took his place in the circle. Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't this the part where you tell us you gotta get new friends?" he asked with a smirk. Logan smiled and hugged the group tighter.

"Why mess with perfection?" he decided.

* * *

**A/N: Right, okay. You may have noticed the tone shift and decided it was awkward, or you might have been perfectly fine with it. I dunno, I'm moving across a spectrum of writing styles here, so stick with me.**

**I decided not to change the chapter 3 I wrote up, after all, just added loads to it. But you're starting to see plot, now! That's new.**

**Please review and tell me what you think, any ideas you have, what you wanna see, etc. :)**


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